No, they've learned to write down their passwords on post-it notes stuck to their monitors or elsewhere. Or, their password is "password" or their name or something similarly stupid.
Yep. But they leave me alone.:)
In today's IT market, I can't afford to have my projects slip because I'm being a nice guy. At best I'll tell them "open a trouble ticket and I'll get to it" so that I have documentation of how short a particular problem user's memory is.
This completely depends on whether or not it's your job to handle these things immediately. If it is, then you're kind of out of luck as not doing them means you're not doing your job.
I'm also guessing that you don't mind helping the "nice users" who only ask the "how do I" type questions once and maybe come back again asking for some clarifications on the "why" part of the particular question; I love these users, as they want to learn and help me do my job.
For the users who fit into the "I'll use the admin as my manual" type, quit being nice. Explain something once and, when they ask the same question again, hand them a note pad and remind them that they asked you that same question sometime previously. Suggest that notes be taken. On the third offense, hand them a 3.5 card with "http://www.google.com" written on it and tell them that you are an administrator and that you are more than happy to help them learn a particular concept, but you just don't have the time to be their personal man page.
Do note that to "quit being nice" does not mean to treat them like crap, yell, scream or otherwise throw a fit. I'm trying to get these users to quit using my brain and start using theirs. I'm more than happy to help them with some bit of wisdom once they've demonstrated to me that they're not just lazy.
Passwords I handle in a similar manner. I have the "Monday password club" on my whiteboard with the name of everybody who asks me to reset their password Monday morning because they just can't remember it after a two day weekend. It takes two consecutive Mondays to make the list. Next to the names are the number of "successful" and "failed" Mondays. Passwords are reset to "IForgotMyPasswordXXWeeksStr8" where XX is the number of weeks on the whiteboard. The smarter of the users will come down when they've forgotten their passwords and see my tally. After four weeks on the board, the users are sufficiently trained and I remove their names.
This is an interesting idea. Are you thinking 5mm LED packages with this? Looking at some of the stuff available at The LED Light.com, there are some interesting options on this. The quad-colored LEDs looks particularly cool.
It looks like I could outfit my computer room with LEDs for about $200 for just the diodes. Figure another $100 in hardware and the time to scavange power supply parts, wiring and assorted other fiddly stuff from the office, and this could pay for itself within a year, easily; my lighting currently consists of halogen torchiere-style lighting to keep reflections to a minimum.
We're looking at a house at the moment, so this is going to factor into my decision. Ideally, I'd like to get one where overhead lighting is pretty much nonexistant so I can in an place LEDs in every room. I imagine some sort of controller based on a BASIC stamp where I can send X10 signals or some sort of encoded data over the serial interface to change pulse width and duty cycle to affect the overall brightness (or color, with those quad-packages). Interface this with a home automation controller PC and you could have some double-plus fun!
I hope somebody from Google is reading this thread. Not only would that be a marketing coup, but it would further give them a chance to prove that they're "not evil", as they like to claim.
Heh. I see I got moderated as a troll... I guess pointing out that self medicating for 3 years is a bad idea, and that the key to his illness was found on Google constitutes a troll... Whatever.
Dude, get a fan. That is normally the problem. Also, dont forget to send the drives back to the manufacturer... the will let you know what happened. ( normally a 3 year warranty). As a bonus you will get new drives.
The problem wasn't heat, it was flaky Maxtor drives from the same lot. Two of the replacements I got from Maxtor also failed in the same manner.
btw- When did you get out of the steel buisness?
-- john galt
Well, you know... I kinda got down in the dumps for a while, with a friend screwing my large copper order, being tied to a bed and shocked repeatedly, and some bastard stealing my girlfriend...
Are you sure it's not a flaky power supply killing them off?
Yep, I'm sure. I explained it completely in another response in this thread, but I got bit by the fact that 1) the drives were from Maxtor; and 2) they were all from the same manufacturing lot.
Yep, and that's what nailed me at that particular point in time. I had purchased a box of 24 drives from the store to use, not even thinking about batch-related failures.
Plus, come to find out, Maxtor seems to be a little looser on their "good" qualifications for the platters, so that was another negative.
It's one of those "live and learn" situations. I do try to keep with the same manufacturer so that the performance specs are the same, but I carefully check the lot numbers before making purchases like this any more.
The main point I was trying to make (not very clearly, I'll admit) was that consumer-level RAID is not a back up device, it's insurance against downtime. Any time you're dealing with physical mechanisms (drives, power supplies, etc.) there's a chance that physical failure can make your RAID irrelevant.
That's all fine and good... Until you have multiple drives in the array fail. I used to think it was such a low possibility that it just wasn't worth worrying about.
I've lost both drives in a mirror set within 15 minutes of each other three times now.
Hmmm... I hadn't thought of this, but it makes perfect sense now. Differences in platter medium deposition, balance, electronic parts, etc. could strike a large percentage of a certain production run.
Thanks for the idea; I'll probably follow this bit of advice from now on.
Never with any "real" brands. I had an old drive in a junk box from a manufacturer called Palladium or something like that that went bonkers after a couple of weeks. I expected this one to hork out, so it was just used for extra swap.
Other than that, no. I even had one power supply fail and send 110 AC through one of the 5V rails and blew everything in the box except the 20G IBM DeskStar I had in at the time.
After losing a total of twelve DiamondMax drives to hardware failure, never again. Eight I had purchased, the other four were replacements for four failures.
I had four in two separate mirror configurations fail within minutes of each other. The original eight were bad within twelve weeks of purchase.
My local retailer honored the replacement warranties with more DiamondMax drives. I accepted on the first four failures and those died within 6 months.
Never, EVER again will I buy anything from Maxtor.
Doesn't India "outsource" manufacturing of soft drinks to American Coca Cola and Pepsico?
I just called a buddy who works for Pepsico to find out how that works. I can't speak for Coca Cola Corp., but I suspect it's the same. If you define "outsourcing" as opening a regional manufacturing plant, then yes.
There are two types of manufacturers for Pepsi: franchises and corporate. You can buy a franchise bottling plant, Pepsico owns the corporate ones.
Anywhere you buy pepsi, it was produced by either a franchise or corporate bottling plant that's within some reasonable distance of the purchase location. Reasonable distance is different depending upon the region of the world, but products are shipped by cheapest, quickest transportation; normally trucks.
Pepsi doesn't move product from country to country unless it absolutely has to. This applies specifically in areas like New York state, close to the Canadian border, where import rules and tarrifs might delay shipments.
Man, I wish I could rip into and explain how you're totally off base, just another example of the "protect your man at any cost" mentality, just another spewer of lies trying to spread incorrect information and muddy the issue.
But I can't, because you're absolutely correct. Both sides of the pundit aisle deflect "real" issues and concentrate on what dirt can be found, insinuated, implied or forged about the opposition. Amazing how the pundits have managed to shift general perceptions so that first reactions are like those above, no?
I long for the days when politicians looked at each other as "noble adversaries" instead of "bitter enemy".
That's not really the way I remember it. True, there was an attempt to stir the pot, so to speak, with rumors of Clinton drug use. Both sides generally looked at the issue from the "who didn't in the 60's?" perspective.
Then some dipshit in the Clinton campaign came up with the "but I didn't inhale" bullshit? That's what I remember the conservative pundits latching on to.
It's a bit different than the Bush situation; when asked he responded truthfully, said it was related to his college days, he also drank too much and it was screwing up his marriage so he quit.
It's not a matter of who did or didn't; but the difference between saying "I didn't fuck up, It only looks like I did" and "Yeah, been there, done that, moved on."
Slashdot Mirror
Not a problem in our network; all boxes use the nice, long shadow passwords or some home-brewed PAM/LDAP abortion.
Yep. But they leave me alone. :)
In today's IT market, I can't afford to have my projects slip because I'm being a nice guy. At best I'll tell them "open a trouble ticket and I'll get to it" so that I have documentation of how short a particular problem user's memory is.
This completely depends on whether or not it's your job to handle these things immediately. If it is, then you're kind of out of luck as not doing them means you're not doing your job.
I'm also guessing that you don't mind helping the "nice users" who only ask the "how do I" type questions once and maybe come back again asking for some clarifications on the "why" part of the particular question; I love these users, as they want to learn and help me do my job.
For the users who fit into the "I'll use the admin as my manual" type, quit being nice. Explain something once and, when they ask the same question again, hand them a note pad and remind them that they asked you that same question sometime previously. Suggest that notes be taken. On the third offense, hand them a 3.5 card with "http://www.google.com" written on it and tell them that you are an administrator and that you are more than happy to help them learn a particular concept, but you just don't have the time to be their personal man page.
Do note that to "quit being nice" does not mean to treat them like crap, yell, scream or otherwise throw a fit. I'm trying to get these users to quit using my brain and start using theirs. I'm more than happy to help them with some bit of wisdom once they've demonstrated to me that they're not just lazy.
Passwords I handle in a similar manner. I have the "Monday password club" on my whiteboard with the name of everybody who asks me to reset their password Monday morning because they just can't remember it after a two day weekend. It takes two consecutive Mondays to make the list. Next to the names are the number of "successful" and "failed" Mondays. Passwords are reset to "IForgotMyPasswordXXWeeksStr8" where XX is the number of weeks on the whiteboard. The smarter of the users will come down when they've forgotten their passwords and see my tally. After four weeks on the board, the users are sufficiently trained and I remove their names.
Jeez... Talk about an "open mouth, insert foot" moment...
Still wouldn't have helped...
That's what my system is, and the stutter is horrible.
This is an interesting idea. Are you thinking 5mm LED packages with this? Looking at some of the stuff available at The LED Light.com, there are some interesting options on this. The quad-colored LEDs looks particularly cool.
It looks like I could outfit my computer room with LEDs for about $200 for just the diodes. Figure another $100 in hardware and the time to scavange power supply parts, wiring and assorted other fiddly stuff from the office, and this could pay for itself within a year, easily; my lighting currently consists of halogen torchiere-style lighting to keep reflections to a minimum.
We're looking at a house at the moment, so this is going to factor into my decision. Ideally, I'd like to get one where overhead lighting is pretty much nonexistant so I can in an place LEDs in every room. I imagine some sort of controller based on a BASIC stamp where I can send X10 signals or some sort of encoded data over the serial interface to change pulse width and duty cycle to affect the overall brightness (or color, with those quad-packages). Interface this with a home automation controller PC and you could have some double-plus fun!
I can't wait to get started.
That it would.
I hope somebody from Google is reading this thread. Not only would that be a marketing coup, but it would further give them a chance to prove that they're "not evil", as they like to claim.
Heh. I see I got moderated as a troll... I guess pointing out that self medicating for 3 years is a bad idea, and that the key to his illness was found on Google constitutes a troll... Whatever.
Repeat after me: self medicating for 3 years is a bad idea. I hope he gets the attention he needs in time now.
That being said, it looks like Google may have saved his life...
The problem wasn't heat, it was flaky Maxtor drives from the same lot. Two of the replacements I got from Maxtor also failed in the same manner.
Well, you know... I kinda got down in the dumps for a while, with a friend screwing my large copper order, being tied to a bed and shocked repeatedly, and some bastard stealing my girlfriend...
Yep, I'm sure. I explained it completely in another response in this thread, but I got bit by the fact that 1) the drives were from Maxtor; and 2) they were all from the same manufacturing lot.
Yep, and that's what nailed me at that particular point in time. I had purchased a box of 24 drives from the store to use, not even thinking about batch-related failures.
Plus, come to find out, Maxtor seems to be a little looser on their "good" qualifications for the platters, so that was another negative.
It's one of those "live and learn" situations. I do try to keep with the same manufacturer so that the performance specs are the same, but I carefully check the lot numbers before making purchases like this any more.
The main point I was trying to make (not very clearly, I'll admit) was that consumer-level RAID is not a back up device, it's insurance against downtime. Any time you're dealing with physical mechanisms (drives, power supplies, etc.) there's a chance that physical failure can make your RAID irrelevant.
That's all fine and good... Until you have multiple drives in the array fail. I used to think it was such a low possibility that it just wasn't worth worrying about.
I've lost both drives in a mirror set within 15 minutes of each other three times now.
I thought that Nemesis broke that rule...
Hmmm... I hadn't thought of this, but it makes perfect sense now. Differences in platter medium deposition, balance, electronic parts, etc. could strike a large percentage of a certain production run.
Thanks for the idea; I'll probably follow this bit of advice from now on.
Never with any "real" brands. I had an old drive in a junk box from a manufacturer called Palladium or something like that that went bonkers after a couple of weeks. I expected this one to hork out, so it was just used for extra swap.
Other than that, no. I even had one power supply fail and send 110 AC through one of the 5V rails and blew everything in the box except the 20G IBM DeskStar I had in at the time.
Maxtor...
After losing a total of twelve DiamondMax drives to hardware failure, never again. Eight I had purchased, the other four were replacements for four failures.
I had four in two separate mirror configurations fail within minutes of each other. The original eight were bad within twelve weeks of purchase.
My local retailer honored the replacement warranties with more DiamondMax drives. I accepted on the first four failures and those died within 6 months.
Never, EVER again will I buy anything from Maxtor.
Or even...
Juror #1: Guilty...
Juror #2: Me too!
Juror #3: Me too!
...
Pear is an emulator.
I've actually been wondering if they turn the lights out as a cheap framerate hack...
If you don't have to render any monsters, the framerate goes through the roof.
Will this one use light?
I need a few new pair of glasses. Care to supply a link so I can order a few dozen?
I just called a buddy who works for Pepsico to find out how that works. I can't speak for Coca Cola Corp., but I suspect it's the same. If you define "outsourcing" as opening a regional manufacturing plant, then yes.
There are two types of manufacturers for Pepsi: franchises and corporate. You can buy a franchise bottling plant, Pepsico owns the corporate ones.
Anywhere you buy pepsi, it was produced by either a franchise or corporate bottling plant that's within some reasonable distance of the purchase location. Reasonable distance is different depending upon the region of the world, but products are shipped by cheapest, quickest transportation; normally trucks.
Pepsi doesn't move product from country to country unless it absolutely has to. This applies specifically in areas like New York state, close to the Canadian border, where import rules and tarrifs might delay shipments.
Man, I wish I could rip into and explain how you're totally off base, just another example of the "protect your man at any cost" mentality, just another spewer of lies trying to spread incorrect information and muddy the issue.
But I can't, because you're absolutely correct. Both sides of the pundit aisle deflect "real" issues and concentrate on what dirt can be found, insinuated, implied or forged about the opposition. Amazing how the pundits have managed to shift general perceptions so that first reactions are like those above, no?
I long for the days when politicians looked at each other as "noble adversaries" instead of "bitter enemy".
That's not really the way I remember it. True, there was an attempt to stir the pot, so to speak, with rumors of Clinton drug use. Both sides generally looked at the issue from the "who didn't in the 60's?" perspective.
Then some dipshit in the Clinton campaign came up with the "but I didn't inhale" bullshit? That's what I remember the conservative pundits latching on to.
It's a bit different than the Bush situation; when asked he responded truthfully, said it was related to his college days, he also drank too much and it was screwing up his marriage so he quit.
It's not a matter of who did or didn't; but the difference between saying "I didn't fuck up, It only looks like I did" and "Yeah, been there, done that, moved on."
I just started going through the joke links on the O'Reilly Parrot pages and started to wonder...
What happens to the joke pages when (if?) Parrot becomes mature enough to actually warrant a book?